Entrance Black and White Marble Floor

Hello all,
I just finished the marble Floor for the Entrance Hall.

The floor was easy to make, but rather time consuming.

As with the firplace mantels, I strated by painting the illustration board a base color, let it dry 30 minutes, then took a wet sea sponge, squeezed out most of the water, dipped it lightly in the second paint color, then sponged it on making sure I turned the sponge to keep the pattern random.

When that was dry, I sponged on another color, very similar to the one before

When that was dry, I used tooth pics to create the veins. I looked at pictures of black and white marble online for help

I let the paint dry overnight, then I sprayed on 3 coates of clear glaze and let that dry for 24 hours. I then rubbed the marble down with a 0000 steel whool.
The next day was cutting day. I cut the black marble into 1 " by 1/4" tiles, and the White marble into 1" x 1" and 1/4" x 1/4" tiles using a metal ruler and a sharp utility knife.

The next step was to cut a subfloor in illustration board to the dimensions of the room. because the tiles are not perfectly square, it was important to have guide lines on the subfloor to make sure the pattern was as exact as possible. I took out some graph paper with 1/4" x 1/4" squares and glued it onto the subfloor. Next, starting with the very center of the room, I glued the tiles in place with a regular glue stick.

The glue stick works well. I put the glue on the subfloor and on the back of the tile. The bond is strong, but it takes a while to set so you can move the tile a bit to aligne it properly. I covered the floor with a piece of mdf and books to wheigh it down overnight.

The next day it was time to grout the floor. I like to use regular drywall spackle, the stuff that is used to fill small holes in the wall. With my finger, I went over the spaces with the spackle and tried to get into all the cracks. Then, I took a damp sponge and went over in circular motions to take off any excess spackle, and go over with a dry cloth. You have to make sure you don't apply too much pressure because you will push the spackle out of the cracks. The final step was to go over it with a steel whool, whipe it down with a damp cloth, and check the fit.

All in all, from start to finish, this floor section took about 16 hours of work. Thank God it's finished.